Textbooks

Glendale schools as of this week will have $16 less per student to spend on things like textbooks. Gov. Gray Davis' $3.3-billion package of program reductions that became law Tuesday will result in about $450,000 less for instructional materials in the Glendale Unified School District. Glendale schools were initially promised $64 per student for materials such as textbooks, but the budget package will give the district $48 per student, a cut of $16 per student, district Chief Business and Financial Officer Steve Hodgson said.

Gary Moskowitz GLENDALE -- A new assembly bill coauthor by Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) will try to prevent student back problems brought on by carrying heavy textbooks. Frommer said he, along with Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside) and state Sen. Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco) want to address a nationwide rise in back injuries and leg problems that are thought to be related to carrying heavy textbooks. The removal of lockers in many California schools in the past 10 years due to safety concerns is part of the problem, Frommer said.

Tim Willert GLENDALE -- The state Assembly unanimously passed a bill Wednesday by Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) that would improve access to Braille education for visually impaired students. AB306 would increase access to Braille instructional materials -- including textbooks -- instructional aides and teachers who are fluent in Braille. The bill would allocate $227,000 to community colleges statewide to offer Braille training courses for teachers.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION The California Assn. for Bilingual Education has named the Glendale Unified School District its district of the year for providing ?exemplary? programs for English learners. The association will announce the award during a presentation Tuesday and will recognize the district at a conference Feb. 25 at the Long Beach Convention Center. Bilingual education has been an emphasis for the district, which has dual-language immersion programs for Armenian, German, Korean and Spanish, with Italian set to begin next year.

The Glendale Unified school board approved having an additional meeting in September. WHAT IT MEANS The board will meet at 5 p.m. Sept. 23 in a joint meeting with Glendale Community College Board of Trustees. The meeting will be in the community college?s board room. ? The board unanimously approved Resolution No. 1, which ensures students have sufficient textbooks and instructional material for the next school year. The school district determined there was a sufficient amount of textbooks this past school year and there will also be enough instructional materials for the upcoming school year.

Robert Chacon A local private school is planning to ship hundreds of used textbooks on a cargo container destined for a village in the southwestern region of Uganda. Their destination: a kindergarten through sixth-grade school in the village of Nyamirama. Crestview Preparatory School is joining a loose coalition of groups from as far away as Bakersfield that are sending aid to the impoverished region. The school's contribution is being spearheaded by third-grade teacher Judy Lehman and her husband, Burt.

GLENDALE — The school district is ready to spend more than $2.4 million it was awarded last summer. Top on the wish list are books. "I think there was such a need for textbooks that we could have said textbooks right off the bat and closed the deal," said Patty Scripter, legislative chairwoman from the First District Parent Teacher Assn. A committee that was created to allocate the grant money presented its plan to the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education Tuesday.

Hearing Tuesday on textbooks Laguna Beach Unified School District Instructional Services will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11, to ensure the availability of textbooks and instructional materials for 2005-06. The meeting will take place in the district board room, 550 Blumont St. Information: (949) 497-7700. High school names assistant principal Robert Billinger has been hired as assistant principal at Laguna Beach High School. His responsibilities include discipline and attendance, and he is also a participant on the Q4E Seed Committee, Substance Abuse Task Force and the county-sponsored Child Welfare and Attendance group.

GANN LIMIT CALCULATIONS The board approved a resolution to adopt limits on the growth of expenditures for publicly funded programs, known as Gann Limit Calculations. WHAT IT MEANS Adopting the Gann Limit Calculations requires the district to make annual reports on the amount of money it can spend and district funds that are subject to limits. The district will also have to report on the amount of its state aid distribution, the funding included within the school district's tax revenue and what funds are excluded from the appropriation limit.

Dinner to honor community members MONTROSE -- The Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce will honor residents who have made the community a better place to live and work at its annual dinner Jan. 9. Reservations must be made by Jan. 6 for the event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the La Canada Flintridge Country Club, 5500 Godby Drive in La Canada Flintridge. The chamber will also install its 2003 executive board and directors during the event.

Before I get started, I'd like to invite you all to the Glendale Central Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday. I will be joining Patrick Caneday and two other authors for a discussion on self-publishing. We will also be autographing our books for those who wish to purchase a copy. As a bonus, you will have a rare opportunity to tell me in person whether you agree or disagree with what I am about to say. And away we go. Last week, my motorcycle broke down on the Golden State (5) Freeway.

Gov. Brown signed a bill last Thursday that requires California schools to use history textbooks and lessons that mention positive contributions from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. No other state has such a requirement. While I have no problem including in a history textbook anybody who is important in human history, I do have a problem when it is mandated by elected officials just because it is politically expedient to do so. No other group of highly educated professionals has so much of their work environment controlled as do teachers.

Glendale Community College is shopping its student bookstore around to outside companies, a move that could help it keep pace with the digital transition sweeping the publishing industry, officials said. The college began soliciting proposals to operate the store from private companies last month. College officials said they anticipate hearing from some of the biggest names in the college bookstore arena, including Follett, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers and Nebraska Book Company.

Voters on Tuesday affirmed their confidence in the Glendale Community College leadership, reelecting Tony Tartaglia and Vahe Peroomian to the board of trustees at a time when the college faces unprecedented budget cuts. “I am excited that the voters are expressing their confidence in their incumbents,” Tartaglia said. “It is a vindication that we made the right choices. It is a feeling of confidence that this college is moving in the right direction.” The incumbents cited an ongoing effort to gather community input on the direction of the college, as well as enhanced career tech programs, as some important recent accomplishments.

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. Next year on Dec. 7, it will be 70 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I remember first studying about it in high school and then again in my second year of college.

The annual Armenian Genocide observance and commemoration at the Alex Theatre reminds us of certain unavoidable facts. As an elected official, let me state them from my heart in words so clear as to command their assent. We must never forget the Armenian Genocide and the inhumanity surrounding this tragic event. We must bring inexhaustible energy, heart and sense of purpose to ending the unmitigated shame and understated disgrace at the failure of our government in Washington to formally recognize this tragedy as historic fact.

I’d like to revisit a few past columns that brought out some interesting responses from you good readers and left open questions in my mind as well. On Texas textbooks, it was unanimous. The books our children learn from should be written by scholars and talented storytellers and not politicians and special interest groups. Once again it comes down to local control, where local people understand local needs vs. central bureaucracy, where politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats (and now we must add religious fanatics)

Mountain Avenue Elementary School kindergarten teacher Ashley Sparks called her class together and asked for a volunteer to show where the students? adopted South Asian teenager lived. Hudson Story approached a map of the world and pointed to Nepal, the small nation south of China and north of India. ?Now what?s the name of the country where Sugi-kumari lives?? Sparks asked. ?Illinois,? Hudson said. Sparks let out a chuckle, acknowledging Illinois was Hudson?s favorite and his home state.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday announced the release of 10 free digital math and science textbooks, a move praised by local school officials who’ve long supported the concept. It was the first phase of the digital textbook initiative and was not expected to immediately permeate the education system because school districts must still go through the process of choosing whether to adopt the materials for their curricula. Glendale Unified School District officials have discussed digital textbooks at several school board meetings in the past and have generally been supportive of the concept, albeit with some reservations.

They aren?t supposed to be casual or friendly, welcoming a reader to investigate an unfamiliar subject. The late Walt Stanchfield didn?t seem to adhere to the usual textbook rules, though. During his 60-year career in animation, Stanchfield developed a penchant for thinking ? and drawing ? outside the box. While working for Disney in the 1970s and ?80s, he successfully established weekly drawing classes for young animators and other interested artists to learn from his experience.